How to Become a Better Active Listener in Sales

Listening is one of the most critical skills for sales success. It is no less significant than effective communication and interpersonal skills, or the ability to give spectacular presentations. Evidence suggests that a key skill to successfully selling is to ask a lot of probing questions, then listen carefully and patiently, while fully focusing on a prospect. Always remember: the sales process is not about you—it’s about your customer.

Salespeople aren’t shy. We like people. We like to talk. But while we can keep the conversation rolling, how skilled are we when it comes to actually listening to our customers? As any sales expert can tell you, being an active listener is fundamental to being an effective sales rep. Asking questions and listening to the answers creates a dialogue with the customer. Through that conversation, you arrive together at what the customer needs.

Listening well enables sales professionals to absorb all the crucial details and understand all the nuances presented at the meeting, then use that information to provide the best, most effective and suitable solutions for customers. Furthermore, there are words that are of great importance to a customer, the words that reflect their top priorities or help them express their feelings. Individuals who listen have the advantage of using these words as a powerful tool to improve the communication process and show commitment to their customers. This strategy will always give them the edge they need to set themselves apart and come out on top in a highly-competitive marketplace.

Sales professionals with poor listening skills typically fall short of expectations, fail to generate results and build long-lasting relationships with buyers. Their inability to LISTEN is at the core of disappointing outcomes. In fact, even some of the best and most efficient sales professionals fail to understand their customers if they do not listen carefully.

Through extensive research, we’ve identified a few common challenges that may impede the sales process and interfere with your ability to listen. Please keep them in mind as you are bracing up for your next sales meeting. We believe that avoiding the pitfalls below will encourage you to hone your listening skills and help you dramatically increase your chances of success.

1. Avoid One-Sided Speak

Ever notice that strange habit some people have of finishing your sentences or mouthing your words before you even have them all the way out? Those folks are not really listening to what you’re saying; they’re just impatiently awaiting their turn to speak and eagerly anticipating what the next steps are. But guess what? You can’t know the next steps unless you’re really listening to what the other person is saying.

2. Avoid Making Assumptions During the Conversation

You may think you’ve heard it all before and that no customer situation is new. Based on that assumption, you miss the nuances of your client’s words and fail to properly grasp what it is they need and want.

They say you only hear what you want to hear. What we might be hearing is, “You’re the best! I only want you to sell me goods and services,” when what is really being said is, “I don’t want to work with you—you’re not even listening to me!” Once again, the culprit is the belief that there’s nothing new to hear. Be careful: Jumping to the conclusion that you know exactly where the convo is headed takes you right out of the listening circle and into a zone in your mind where deals are not taking place.

The best way to avoid falling into that familiarity trap is to treat each sales discussion as wholly new. Come with no expectations or assumptions, and listen as if you don’t have the years of knowledge you’ve accumulated. Only once you’ve fully and completely surmised and understood the buyer’s situation should you turn to your reservoir of experience and think of the correct solutions to propose.

Remember that old cliché, “Familiarity breeds contempt.”? In sales and other walks of life, the proverb transforms itself into “Familiarity breeds assumptions.” Yes, that very knowledge and experience can unexpectedly induce a negative – when a customer’s conversation and situation sounds similar to what we’ve encountered numerous times before, automation kicks in. And in doing so, we lapse into the familiar, the past success.

But similar is not the same as the same. There can be fine details, little distinctions that render our expected solution the incorrect one for the customer’s problem – or at the very least, a less optimal solution than might otherwise exist.

3. Pay Attention to Body Language and Vocal Indicators

When a client has a monotone voice, a nasal delivery, or a speaking style well suited to putting babies to sleep, that can lead us to space off against our will, only to randomly snap out of it and realize we didn’t hear a thing the customer said.

As you may know, every human interaction goes beyond words. Body language and vocal indicators may serve as a clue as to how the buyer feels about the sales interaction. Perceptive sales professionals should pay close attention to their customers’ body language, gestures, their tone of voice, facial expressions, eye contact, emotions, and other important signs of satisfaction or discontent. In certain situations, the ability to decode the body language and emotional indicators can make a difference between failure and success.

The way to overcome that instinct is to work on developing your concentration. There’s the time-honored trick of staring into a lit candle, but a more practical idea is to read up on and engage in mindful living practices, with their emphasis on living in the present and paying attention to the specific sensory details all around you. (Not to mention, it also comes with the added side-benefit of stress reduction.)

4. Focus on One Thing at a Time

This being the Distracted Age, you’re likely doing two things at any given time. On sales calls, you could be scrolling through data on your computer screen, taking a selfie so you can update your profile picture, or sending an “important” tweet about the game last night. Make no mistake, in this day and age, multitasking is code for ‘easily distracted,’ which we all experience—because there are things to “like” on Facebook and if you’re not online for half an hour, your whole world will come crashing in. Dude. No, it won’t. It was hard enough getting the client on the phone to begin with. Don’t squander that opportunity. Step away from the social networking site and be with the one you’re with.

Having only one ear in the conversation, you miss not only the words being uttered, but also vocal cues such as tone of voice, nonverbal indicators, and revealed emotion. The point is we’re not born listeners, and the noisy world around us and inside our heads only makes the job of listening harder. For the first few years of our lives, it’s all about us. After that, we have to fight against an innate tendency to be self-focused. You can’t really blame people—for our entire lives we’ve never for a millisecond been anywhere but in our own bodies.

It takes skill and practice to become an active listener. You need to keep working on it to keep it strong. The best way we know to do this is to anticipate the danger of spacing off is by preparing beforehand. Previous to getting on that next call or going to that next in-person client meeting, take the following steps:

5. Turn Off Distractions (Especially Your Phone)

Turn off and stow your electronic devices. It might hurt a little bit, but you’ll be OK if your phone’s turned off. Put your computer in sleep mode and take notes with pen and paper. You’ll hear more if you only have the one thing to do.

The advent of smartphones has created an epidemic of shorter attention spans, multitasking, and just generally being distracted. While this is related to the point directly above, undivided attention is distinct.

In other words, that means putting away the phone, quit thinking about other things, and pay attention to the client and what they’re saying. You’re also much more likely to pick up on the nonverbal cues that reveal more than their surface words that way. Otherwise, distracted, we might see those clues in passing, but they may not register because it’s a brief flash that doesn’t stick in our brain. If your attention is focused, then those signs don’t escape notice and, more importantly, you realize what the cues are saying.

6. Be Fully Present

Embrace the moment by really honing in on every nuance of the conversation—not just the words being spoken, but how they’re being delivered. You’ll hear more than the words, and come away from the meeting with a clear sense of what your client needs and exactly how you will dovetail your solution with those needs.

During a sales interaction, some sales professionals think ahead about what they should say, mention or ask next, instead of concentrating on all the crucial points communicated by a customer. Faking interest or just maintaining the perception of being engaged may backfire, when the time comes to present specific solutions and move the sales process forward. Some sales professionals may fall into the trap of losing interest or becoming impatient when a customer speaks slowly or talks at length about a particular subject. In this case, it is wise to guide the conversation in the desired direction versus tuning the customer out.

7. Recap What Is Being Said To You

Polish your listening skills by recapping what the client is saying. Summarize the problems they’re experiencing. If they hear their dilemma recapped in your words, they’ll be more confident in your ability to help them.

Yes, it’s another reminder to verbally mirror what the client has said. It demonstrates you’ve actively listened and are paying attention – as well as prevents numerous potential misunderstandings. Correctly mirroring also enhances your credibility – you’re demonstrating your attention to detail and not just getting the general idea of what your buyer is saying, as can happen if you try to just summarize or present it in your own words.

Without a doubt, selective listening is one of the most common and serious mistakes that sales professionals make. When they only pay attention to words that support their agenda, reinforce their perspective or are in sync with the direction they want the discussion to go, their offering is incomplete and may ultimately hinder the sales process. Therefore, when it comes to customer interactions, exceptional listeners typically focus on three important aspects of the communication process: content, meaning and feeling.

Being a Good Listener Isn’t Easy

That’s the reason so many people seem to miss what you’re saying—even the important stuff. Anyone who is in a relationship with a significant other knows that not listening closely can land you in an argument. As a salesperson, there is power in really perking up your ears for your client—they’ll appreciate the attention, you’ll know what they need, they’ll know you know what they need, and you’ll feel better stepping into the zone where you’re all ears.

Active listening can be a hard skill to develop, particularly in our distracted, multitasking world that’s filled with sensory overload. But by utilizing the tactics we’ve outlined here, you’ll have sharper, focused, concentrated listening that ensures you’ll stay in the moment of the conversation and really pay attention to what your customers are saying.

Updated 10/7/2024